Anarchy (Hive Trilogy Book 2) (23 page)

When a new song came on—this group of karaoke wannabes were a lot better than the last—I let out a shriek and grabbed Kyle’s hand, dragging him away from the bar and toward the dance floor.

“Wheee!” I squealed, pulling him into the fray, smashing against people as we went. I flailed my arms in a ridiculous version of dancing, even managing a couple of leg kicks which knocked down more than one vampire around me.

Kyle threw back his head and laughed. Somehow he’d managed to bury his anger deep enough to pretend with me. Both of us kept this up, creating more than a little ruckus on the dance floor. Kyle reached out and captured both of my hands, spinning me around. Ash and vamps were diving out of our way, but we made sure to extend our reach and still bump a lot of them. Aim of the game: annoyance. And we were on fire.

Finally, we nudged the wrong vampire. Knew it couldn’t be long before their arrogance kicked in and someone decided to put us stupid ash in our place. I anticipated the shove, but because I was supposed to be drunk as a skunk, I pretended to trip and I hit the ground hard. Kyle roared above me, in a pissed off cave-ash type of way. Then it was on.

The vampire I had nudged was now locked into a brawl with Kyle. I allowed myself one quick glance to the far wall and saw Lucas enjoying some blood wine before I jumped up and threw myself into the fight. Forcing my movements to remain staggered and clumsy, I swung around and cracked the vampire, who had Kyle in a headlock, in the back.

I let out a crazy sort of giggle. Everyone had to continue to believe we were hammered. One of the ash bartenders leapt over the bar and came at me full force.

“Break it up!” he yelled, reaching for me.

Sorry, buddy, you’re kinda cute, but you’re going down. I gave him a strong upper cut to the jaw and he flew back as I let out another fake cackle of drunken laughter. Another bartender flew over the bar, but Sam tripped him before he reached the dance floor.

Suddenly Lucas was stalking towards us with two meaty vampires at his side. I fell to the ground still laughing, making sure everyone got a good view of my bootyshorts. Drunk chicks did stupid shit like that all the time. I should know because … Tessa.

I gave a silent cheer as Kyle flipped the vampire over his shoulder and slammed him on the ground. The enforcer grabbed at his mouth and began to laugh as well.

Lucas shouted loud enough for all to hear: “Throw these idiots in the pit. They’re completely intoxicated.”

The vampire that Kyle had attacked stood to his full height now and glared at us. Suddenly meaty vampire #1 had my arms behind my back. I pretended to wobble and sway as he dragged me out of there with Kyle at my side.

“Screw you,” Kyle slurred as meaty #2 jabbed him hard in the back. Kyle and I let our heads drop and our words mumble as we shuffled our feet along to the elevator.

We were dragged over to the special red elevator, meaty #1 and #2 using their security clearance to call it up. Entering the elevator, I met Kyle’s eyes for a split second, and knew he was ready to rock and roll.

It had killed Sam and the rest of the crew to stay back and allow us to get our asses kicked, but the plan required just me and Kyle to get into the pit. The others were off doing their part now. My eyes flicked between the two meaty asshats. If I was being honest, I was a little nervous about taking my meathead down. I had never fought a full-blown vampire before. But we needed their access cards since ours were confiscated.

Kyle straightened, and it was time to put part two of the plan in motion.

“Dood, I gutta piss,” Kyle slurred.

I nodded, slouching and swaying at the same time. “Just go … just let it go.”

Meaty #2 freaked, pushing Kyle away from him, which released the enforcer’s hands from behind his back.

“You will not piss in this elevator!”

Kyle, now hands free, grabbed at his zipper. “I can’t stop, dude, I’m too … too…”

He fumbled, getting the zipper down before reaching inside of his pants. I seriously wanted to laugh my ass off at how horrified both meaties looked right then, but I needed to use this distraction to my advantage. I pretended to fall forward, and was relieved when my hands were released.

Elevator fight in 3 … 2 … 1…

Slipping my hands into my boot I yanked out a blade. At the same time Kyle pulled one from a secret pocket right near his junk. Brave dude.

All fake drunkenness gone, we had the complete element of surprise. Gripping the knife tightly, I sprang up and whammed the hilt up into meaty #1’s nose, hearing the satisfying crunch of bone. As he leaned forward to grab his face I came down hard with the butt of my heavy blade and cracked at the base of the skull. The entire two-step maneuver had been fast and smooth. The sexy six would be proud of me. Those sergeant hardasses had been drilling this type of knock-out move into me over and over in training. Nice to know the boys riding my ass in the least sexy way was actually paying off.

Meaty #1 fell and I looked up just in time to see Kyle snap meaty #2’s neck. Okay, so I guess if you caught them off guard, fighting a vamp wasn’t so bad. Kyle gave me a fist bump and then I returned my knife to my boot, thankful I hadn’t had to use the pointy end. The elevator was three floors from reaching the Pit so I quickly slipped my hand inside my dress and came up with two stainless steel razor-wire zip ties.

Kyle raised his eyebrow. “Damn, girl.”

I winked, handing him one of the ties. We both made quick work of strapping the meaties’ hands behind their backs. Then, as the elevator dinged and the doors started to open, Kyle smoothed his hair and I checked myself for blood.

Before stepping out, I pulled the button to pause the elevator. We were definitely going to need to make a quick escape. Then we quickly dragged the meat twins out and deposited them off to the side of the main entrance.

Leaving them, we crossed the dank, underground area. I started praying Lucas had come through for us. Without him, the rest of the plan would sink. Moving toward the bright reception spot, we approached the old-looking guard, Marty, who basically lived down here and knew everything about this place.

My blood turned to ice when another figure stepped into the light and I realized Marty was talking to a member of the Quorum. A female. She was one of the more silent members but I remembered her making rude jokes when they drew my blood last. She was on my bitch list.

There was nowhere for Kyle and me to hide, and since the sound of our footsteps had already echoed through the tunnel, we were immediately spotted. As she took a step toward us, her eyes blazed in anger.

Shit.
Not part of the plan. Marty was supposed to be alone and Sam was supposed to have wired a large sum of money into his human family’s bank account to ensure his cooperation. Lucas said Marty hated being relegated down here to the bowels of the Hive, hidden away. He had plenty of beef with vampires and therefore made the perfect ally.

With no other option, Kyle set off at a sprint, charging the Quorum member. Marty didn’t even hesitate to jump out of the way, so I was guessing he was still in on the plan. I pulled my knife out again and charged down the narrow and dark hall right behind Kyle.

Quorum bitch stood there dumbfounded, her jaw slack. The last thing she’d expected was that we’d attack her—lowly ash should only bow to vamps.

She took a step back, recovering enough to sneer at us. “You wouldn’t!”

Kyle slammed into her. They hit the ground as he threw out an elbow, cracking her in the throat. I used my height advantage to leap over them, landing on the other side of the grappling pair, turning back to try and find a way to help my friend.

The Quorum member was nailing Kyle—who was on top—with her red talon claws. The moment she had a good grip on his biceps, she threw him so hard into the air his back cracked into the ceiling. Oh hell to the no, bitch!

She didn’t even see me coming. My hand flew down hard, jamming the knife into her eye. A scream ripped from her as Kyle landed on all fours next to her. He stumbled a little from the fall, but recovered in an instant to dive across her and wrap his hands around her neck. She missed his movements, distracted by the blade still lodged in her eye.

As he choked her out, I leaned down, full of rage, and whispered in her ear, “Welcome to the culling.”

Kyle snapped her neck. I knew enough about vampires to know this would only keep her down for a little while. She would heal in a few hours. And we so didn’t have time to kill the bitch. Plus, our escape would already have enough of the vamp world gunning for us. No need to increase our list of offences.

My eyes were surely blazing as I straightened and locked Marty in my gaze. He was still flat against the wall, looking very pale and shaky. Before I could start demanding, the vamp extended his hand. Cradled in his palm was a set of keys. “Ryder’s in cell one-thirty-eight. Always respected him. Was a pleasure to work with.”

Marty was turning out to be one of the least stupid and evil of the vamps.

Kyle took the key and nodded at him. “Shit’s going to get rough around here. Do you have anyone you can stay with?” The enforcer didn’t want repercussions of our actions befalling the poor vampire that the Hive thought was too old to do anything but sit in the pit guarding criminals.

Marty nodded. “My granddaughter has a cabin on Mount Hood.”

Kyle clapped him on the shoulder. “Take care.”

We wasted no more time, both of us dashing through the halls. I tried my best to ignore the screams and pleas which could be heard through so many of the doors. I wondered for a brief moment how many prisoners were actually in here, and what the ratio of ash to vampires was. Bet the ash were on the higher end; they were always a target. Though maybe they just killed ash when they screwed up too badly.
Grr.
I really had to stop thinking about that. Ryder was the priority.

I let Kyle lead us to cell one-thirty-eight. It took about eight minutes of winding through the underground prison system. Holy shit balls, I’d had no idea there were so many cells down here—they could seriously hold thousands. When we finally reached the right section and door, I lifted a shaking hand to the lock. It took me more than a few attempts but I managed to click it across. Kyle slammed a flat palm against the metal frame and my breath caught as we looked into the small, dingy, damp-scented room.

“Ryder,” I said in a rush, my feet moving before I could think twice. I closed the distance, dropping to his side, the key falling from my hand as I reached for him lying stomach down on the cold, dirty floor. He was naked from the waist up and his back was a mass of red welts, as if he’d just been whipped or something. WTAF?

I swung my head around to find Kyle’s furious face above mine. “He needs blood. They’ve starved him and that’s why he’s not healing,” he said, letting out an enraged snarl. With a whoosh of air he was gone. Whoa, he was totally going to kill someone right now. Hopefully he remembered to grab some blood too.

Turning back to Ryder, I was startled to see his head had shifted to the side and his eyes were now open.

“Charlie?” His words were hoarse, and I could see him swallowing hard as if trying to find some moisture. “You can’t be here … too dangerous.”

He started to push himself up, fatigue and pain racking his features. I flapped around for a bit, trying to find a place to put my hands that wouldn’t hurt him, before finally managing to slip in under his arms to help him into a sitting position.

I leaned in closer, my heart hurting to see him like this. Of course, he was still a big toughie, trying to stand up in case anyone came for us. I held him down, leaning in to whisper. “Kyle’s gone to find you some blood, then we have to get out of here. The Quorum is coming for me, for all of us, and it’s not safe here any longer. Once you can walk, we have to cure the little girl, and then get the hell out of Dodge.”

His eyes were a big swirl of silver as they examined my face, and I couldn’t stop myself from leaning forward and resting my forehead against his. “Shit, I’m so glad to see you alive, even though the vampires need to all die for throwing you into this asshole pit.”

Ryder breathed deeply against my cheek. “Been worried about you. Knew the boys would have your back, but the Quorum … tortured me … wanted to know everything about you.”

Dammit. They were totally coming after me and targeting all of my loved ones in the process. I tried to keep my anger from bubbling over. There was no time for the major meltdown, hissy-fit I wanted to throw. Ryder and I both reacted at the scraping sound from behind us. I was up and crouched in front of him, another knife from my boot in my hand, when Kyle dashed around the corner.

“Got the blood,” he said, lifting two bottles up. “Marty was gone, but there is a little fridge beneath his desk. Lucky he drinks the same as Ryder.”

Kyle must have noticed then that his best friend was partially up off the floor. He dived down to kneel beside him. “Fuck, man!”

Somehow everything this dude needed to say was in those two words, his fear, worry, pain, anger, relief—two goddamn words.

Ryder’s arm was steady as he took the first bottle and downed it in seconds. He’d be extra thirsty with his body trying to heal those injuries. Blood really was a miracle cure for us.

The change started instantly. Already his tawny color was returning, strength clear in his body. The second bottle disappeared just as fast, and Ryder was able to stand without any assistance from us. Kyle reached over his head and pulled his shirt off. He was wearing a white muscle tee underneath. He handed the button dress shirt to Ryder.

“Throw this on. We have to get out of here. I’m not sure how much longer we have. Quorum bitch was still out when I got the blood, but she could come around at any point.”

Ryder nodded, and barely even winced as he slid into the blue shirt. It was a little tight around the chest and arms but it would do for now. Wasting no more time, we took off through the pit. Ryder seemed to be gaining strength in leaps and bounds. Reaching out, he captured my hand, his eyes expressing a plethora of emotions.